Roland-Garros: five films to watch on streaming platforms to stay in the mood


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Roland-Garros, let’s go! For yellow ball enthusiasts, it is possible to extend the pleasure on Netflix, Canal+ and of course Prime Video, with a myriad of content devoted to the sport of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Follow the leader.

Steve Carell in Battle of the Sexes. © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox

While sporting France is adorning itself with ocher for the next two weeks to celebrate the Roland-Garros tournament, we offer you a small selection of films and documentaries to watch or watch again around the little yellow ball on the various streaming platforms. . Tennis stories that often hide much broader themes, whether they evoke the feminist struggles of an era, the psychological scars that high-level sport can leave, or the abnegation required to exist among the big names in tennis. racket.

Battle of the Sexeson Disney+

In the 1970s, former world No. 1 Bobby Riggs openly provoked professional players by claiming that he could beat any of them despite his late 50s. Facing him, champion Billie Jean King tries to assert the right of women to receive the same bonuses as men, and fights more generally to defend the interests and image of women’s tennis. After initially refusing, she accepts a match against Riggs, who has already defeated Margaret Court, King’s main rival. If the heart of this film, inspired by real events, is of course the match between the two protagonists, the directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris had the good idea to take a long look at the process that led to this meeting. They perfectly describe the toxic environment in which tennis was bathed at the time, bring out the primordial messages conveyed in particular by Billie Jean King, while managing to draw from this rather slippery subject a real feel good movie. All complemented by two excellent acting performances, with Emma Stone and Steve Carell in the lead roles.

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Fifth Seton Canal+

The story of Thomas Edison, former hope of French tennis traumatized by a defeat in the final of Roland-Garros, is not real. However, Fifth Set sometimes looks like a documentary on the twilight of an ex-future star. The story therefore focuses on this fictional player approaching the age of 36, a little forgotten but who wishes hard as iron to participate one last time in the Parisian tournament. Despite a complicated physical condition, the emergence of new talents and the reluctance of those close to him, he will fight to tread the clay and regain his feelings of yesteryear. Alex Lutz manages in this film to establish himself as a very credible professional player – whereas he had never practiced before – while delivering a moving performance in the broken mouth of the yellow ball. The production manages very well to transcribe all the tension that characterizes this sport, to which are added the inner demons of the protagonist. The little extra: some scenes were actually shot at the Porte d’Auteuil.

7 days in hellon OCS

From June 22 to 24, 2010, at Wimbledon, Nicolas Mahut and John Isner made history by playing the longest tennis match of all time: 11 hours and 5 minutes. Five years later, HBO took up the subject, not for a documentary on the exploit in question, but for a completely absurd parody: 7 days in hell. In the pure tradition of “mockumentary”, this 45-minute film pushes the cursors to the extreme. We follow Aaron Williams and Charles Poole, two players facing each other in the longest meeting in history. The first is simply the adoptive brother of Venus and Serena Williams, bad boy assumed to be both vulgar and idiotic, the second is a timorous English hopeful martyred by his mother to reach the highest level. All the clichés about the little yellow ball pass there, when it doesn’t become downright absurd. Besides Andy Samberg (Brooklyn 9-9) and Kit Harington (Game Of Thrones) in the main roles, we find among the witnesses of this fake-docus real tennis stars like Serena Williams, Chris Evert or John McEnroe.

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The other side of sport: game, set and anxiety attackon Netflix

The other side of sports is a series of documentaries centered on high-level athletes telling the back of their journey. Game, set and anxiety attack looks at tennis, personified here by a somewhat forgotten player, Mardy Fish. At the height of his career, between the end of the 2000s and the beginning of the following decade, this American was nevertheless ranked 7th in the world. In this documentary, he recounts in detail his journey alongside his friend Andy Roddick, his victories, his difficulties, but also and above all how he had to juggle for years with a mental illness that was difficult to combine with the pressure inherent in the sport of high level. An exciting film that highlights the psychological dimension of sport, which can leave traces as deep as the most serious physical injuries.

The Frenchon Prime Video

Let’s end by coming back to Roland-Garros one last time, but making a little step back in passing. The French is a rather unusual documentary since it is simply sequences captured during the French tournament in 1981 by the director William Klein. In the locker rooms, the stands or the courts, we come across the greatest players of the time such as Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe or a certain Yannick Noah. Note that a “suite”, In The French, was made 35 years later with the return of some protagonists. It is available on Salto. On Prime Video, which owns part of the current broadcast rights for the tournament, you will also be able to see Building the legendanother documentary centered on Roland-Garros released last year.

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